


Of Happiness and Good Cheer

by shibarifan01



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Forgiveness, M/M, No Smut, lOOOOve, smoochy fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-26
Updated: 2013-12-26
Packaged: 2018-01-06 04:46:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1102571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shibarifan01/pseuds/shibarifan01
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John has returned to New York; Harold organizes a Christmas Dinner; love, togetherness and forgiveness</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Happiness and Good Cheer

**Author's Note:**

> Smoochy, soft, tender fic with absolutely no smut, in the spirit of the season. Written quickly after my guests had left and I did not feel like going to sleep.

It’s early dawn on Christmas morning and snow is blanketing the streets of New York muffling the sounds of the city below. In the loft, John is wrapped around Harold, his lips gently kissing the back of Finch’s neck where the scars of the ferry accident make a criss-crossing pattern of bumps and ridges. Harold used to be extremely self-conscious about it but John has taught him that gentleness and sweet kisses are the best medicine. Harold stirs, and John runs his beard-roughened cheek against Harold’s.

“Shhh, it’s still so early, don’t move this feels so perfect,” murmurs John, which makes Harold huff gently and pick up one of John’s hands wrapped around his waist, and kiss it gently. Bear, on John’s other side, stretches, yawns and seeing that his bedmates are not moving, makes circles on the bed and plonks himself back where the bed is cooler. He can wait to go outside until his alpha decides to get up.

“And at the risk of repeating myself, Merry Christmas,” says John, ending the sentence on a heartfelt sigh. He will not say it because guys don’t really say things like that, but he cannot believe how his life has changed in a mere two years. He now has a family, a man he is deeply in love with, good friends and even a dog – a far cry from living alone, sick, broken and abandoned by all.

“I think our little soirée was a success, don’t you think?” says Harold softly, as though not wanting to disturb the quiet which surrounds them. After hemming and hawing, Harold had decided to get a caterer to organize a small dinner get-together for some people, most of whom had little or no family.  And so it was that Lionel and his son, Shaw, Root, Joss’s son and husband and Drs. Madani and Tillman had congregated at John’s loft for a traditional turkey dinner. Shaw had rolled her eyes and had to be convinced to attend, Root had made snarky remarks as she was wont to do, and Lionel had told John that the ex-op had invited him because he couldn’t live without him anymore to which John replied “Lionel, I can still kick your butt from here to doomsday!” but in the end, all had sat down together, a rare occasion, and enjoyed a delicious traditional dinner with good wines and spirits, and all had been happy for the warmth and togetherness the occasion represented. If Harold thought it was quite domestic, he did not say so – he was still surprised that they’d all agreed to be there and was pleased that they all looked like they were enjoying themselves.

Lee and Taylor had played video games while the adults talked and had drinks before the meal and when they’d sat down, Shaw and Root were side by side, Root often running a hand down Shaw’s back when she wanted to press a point or attract her companion’s attention. Fusco had been good-humoroudly teasing John since their return from Colorado. Since he’d lost his fear of the man he called the bane of existence, there was a jauntier air about him. Shaw, seated beside John and across from Lionel was intrigued by this change in their relationship and she kept looking from one to the other, her eyes half-closed, a little frown between her eyebrows.  “There’s something with you two on which I can’t put a finger,” she said at some point, just to be told by Lionel that she shouldn’t put her pointy little nose where it did not belong. John just frowned an eyebrow at her, remaining the strong, silent type but at some point, the wiggle in Lionel’s eyebrow was just too much and she almost blurted something, which turned out to be “Hey, he kicked me!” directed at John.  "Did not," said John, to which Shaw replied immediately "Did too, you bastard!" Harold, who knew about the whole situation, thought it was funny though he wrinkled his eyebrows at Shaw, feeling like the stern parent. “Mr. Reese, please act your age and kindly refrain from kicking Miss Shaw with your large shoes under the table! We still need her to be able to run after our perps!” John was suitably chastened but he glared daggers at her, the two of them acting all the while like 12-year old siblings. The two doctors were involved in some complicated discussion about new treatments. Harold interjected frequently since he knew a lot about medicine, and John would not have said it, but he was mightily impressed with Finch’s vast knowledge, looking at him every so often, his blue eyes softening through his long, curly lashes. And Bear pretended he was invisible as he went from guest to guest hoping for a piece of turkey which would be slipped to him under cover of the tablecloth since he was not supposed to be fed tablescraps but after all, he thought, it was Christmas for him too!

Since John's return from Colorado, he and Harold had made their peace. A few days after his arrival in New York, the air had become fraught with things unsaid and Reese had grown more and more despondent until Harold had cornered him in the library. “What’s wrong John, I feel like you’re almost ignoring me. You don’t seem to want to be here and it’s like you don’t want to interact with me.” They had not been intimate since John’s return, the tall man remaining at his loft, Harold in the safe house he used most often. They were both stressed and it was clear things needed to be aired. And so John had told Harold of his tryst with Lionel at the Rusco Motel while in Colorado, and Harold had looked at him as though he’d grown antlers. “John, really? We’re both men. We do not have the same sex drive and you’re a much younger man. I know my limitations keep me from being as active as I sometimes would like, but do you really think that I would begrudge you a mere fling when you had been gone for a few weeks and frankly, when I was not even sure if you wanted to ever come back? I was much more concerned with the numbers and our ability to help them and that’s why you must have heard phones ringing around you in the hope that you might be able to help some of them, and I was so concerned with the state of your health! You’re a grown man, and I know that you have needs... needs which are probably much more pressing than mine if I'm honest – it does not change anything between us – in fact, Lionel’s a good man – and I’ll always be grateful to him because he brought you back to me when I thought you had left me forever. And I don’t feel threatened by him because I am sure of your affection for me – I even like him quite a bit…” said Harold earnestly, which caused John to do an about-turn and fix him with a mighty frown, to which Harold answered by breaking into a smirk and a wiggle of his eyebrows.  John couldn’t help but laugh and wrap Harold in his arms. 

“Ah, Harold, I told you once that you’d saved my life. But you know, you’ve done much more than that – you gave me my life back and you gave meaning to it – I honestly don’t know where I’d be without you!”  Harold wrapped his arms around John’s waist and kissed him gently. “You’re the man of my life John, don’t ever forget that… and don’t sweat the small stuff – we’re good aren’t we?” asked Harold, to which John replied by kissing him passionately.

Thus the Christmas eve dinner was thoroughly enjoyed by everybody and after midnight everybody bid their goodbyes, Root and Shaw leaving together, which brought a twinkle in Lionel’s eye. Lionel and Lee left with Joss’s husband and son – the two men had developed a friendship and the two boys had become fast buddies. Dr. Madani drove Dr. Tillman home and when Harold and John closed the door on their last guest, all that was left to do was to pick up around the loft which John offered to do since Harold’s neck had become quite painful – he was putting up a good front but John could see the fatigue and the strain in the papery, bruised and bluish skin around his eyes and the lines around his mouth.  Finch was thus convinced have a long hot shower and then to sit down and watch John pick up and put some order in the kitchen.

An hour or so later they went to bed, John spooning around Harold, bundled up in sheets and comforters, since they’d opened a window and the loft was pleasantly cool.  And that’s how Christmas morning found them, happy, at peace and more in love than ever with each other.


End file.
